Book Jacket:
Alek and Deryn are on the last leg of their round-the-world quest to end World War I, reclaim Alek’s throne as prince of Austria, and finally fall in love. The first two objectives are complicated by the fact that their ship, the Leviathan, continues to detour farther away from the heart of the war (and crown). And the love thing would be a lot easier if Alek knew Deryn was a girl. (She has to pose as a boy in order to serve in the British Air Service.) And if they weren’t technically enemies.
The tension thickens as the Leviathan steams toward New York City with a homicidal lunatic on board: secrets suddenly unravel, characters reappear, and nothing is as it seems in this thunderous conclusion to Scott Westerfeld’s brilliant trilogy.
Review:
As I sat down to write this review, I kept hearing in my head the voice of the grandson from The Princess Bride asking suspiciously: “Is this a kissing book?” And Grandpa replying: “Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…” And that’s pretty much Goliath in a nutshell – well, 8.5 out of 10, anyway. The final entry in Westerfeld’s steampunk (or technically, dieselpunk) trilogy has all the beasties, clankers and derring-do you could wish, but at the end of the day this book is ALL about Deryn and Alek’s relationship. Goliath is indeed a Princess Bride kind of kissing book.
Given its focus on The Relationship, Goliath does have just a bit less impetus to it than the previous two stories. The mechanics of the plot revolve around Tesla’s inventions and a bid to end the war, but while that was all very interesting and tech-rific, it also felt a tad, well, MacGuffin-y, to be honest. The meat of this story takes place between Alek and Deryn, and Tesla is the excuses for the global circumnavigation that gives them that time together. Tesla was interesting and crucial and fun, but he wasn’t the soul of the story.
Overall this book has a bit of a travelogue feel to it, with the Leviathan making plenty of stops in distant, exotic locales, from Russia to China to Mexico. We don’t spend too long in any of these foreign ports, but they do make for fun and inventive vignettes, as each place has its own particular Darwinist or Clanker spin. Westerfeld also has a lot of fun with bringing in all sorts of historic icons – from Pancho Villa and William Randolph Hearst to muckrakers and motion pictures – which adds a fantastic historic zest to this story, equally fun for those who know the history and those who don’t.
I do have to admit to just a squick of wistfulness when it came to the end of this book, in that it’s impossible with this kind of adventure story not to want The Big Huge Battle To End All Battles at the end (I blame Return of the Jedi). There are very fun, tense action sequences throughout this book, and the finale certainly doesn’t lack for Danger and Huge World Altering Consequences, but I guess I was just kind of hankering for an EPIC army vs. army showdown. But that’s just me.
As for the Deryn and Alek of it all – well, I’m not going to spoil it for you, but this book definitely answers every question you might have about the two of them. And you might even be surprised.
A swashbuckling adventure that makes for a very satisfying conclusion to this fantastic trilogy, Goliath will make you sad that it’s all over, but happy that it all ended so well. I am going to miss this series…
Byrt Grade: A
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
The Leviathan trilogy-ender delivers on the promise of the series: thrilling airship battles, world travel, ginormous Tesla coils and a few daring smooches.
…as much as I wish were getting more Deryn and Alek, I almost wouldn’t want more because the ending was so satisfying in this. Also. I do not want a pony for Christmas. Or a hippopotamus. All I want is a Perspicacious Loris.
Thanks for quoting my review!
Funnily enough, the idea of a big battle at the end hadn’t even crossed my mind. Though now you mention it, it definitely would’ve been awesome.